Caviar crisis in Russia - a delicacy more expensive than ever

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Business for fish eggs in Russia: "The money is not too good for caviar"

Photo: Ulf Mauder / dpa

In Russia, caviar is part of a successful festive meal in many households.

"The money is not too good for caviar," says Alexander Jefremow, head of the Russian fishing company Dobroflot.

He means above all the red salmon caviar, which is particularly popular with the New Year celebrations.

But this year consumers are faced with a problem: The prices for the delicacy, which is called ikra in Russian, have peaked this year.

Before the New Year celebrations, customers have to pay around 30 percent more than at the same time last year.

For the first time ever, prices rose to over 5000 rubles (60 euros) per kilo.

Black caviar, which has long been produced in Germany and abroad, costs around ten times as much.

It comes from the sturgeon and is much less common - especially since it can only be marketed by farms because the fish is protected.

Sales abroad are increasing sharply

According to the Russian statistics office Rosstat, the price of red caviar has increased more than sevenfold in the past 20 years.

In 2000, a kilo cost 675.2 rubles.

The prices are even rising this year, although the catch of salmon is again significantly higher than in the comparatively meager year 2020. The caviar yield last year was only around 11,000 tons, half of this year's amount.

The production of black caviar in 2020 was just over 50 tons.

"There can be no talk of a deficit this year," Jefremow told the dpa news agency.

The state fisheries authority Rosrybolowstvo expects more than 20,000 tons of salmon caviar this year.

The annual consumption of around 12,000 to 16,000 tons in the largest country in the world in terms of area is covered by this.

However, sales abroad have increased massively - China is a big customer;

some ex-Soviet republics, but also Germany, Australia and Canada buy into Russia.

The chief of the fisheries authorities, Ilya Shestakov, believes that prices should fall again because of the large supply.

This year 510,000 tons of Pacific salmon were caught, almost 90 percent more than in the previous year.

That's why there is also more caviar.

Market experts attribute the fact that prices are still rising to speculators who keep the supply artificially low.

Price agreements between the companies are therefore also a problem.

But Jefremov also sees a specific reason for the high prices in the fact that only a small part of the Pacific Peninsula of Kamchatka, the main production location, comes to the central parts of Russia.

He blames the bureaucracy for it.

Anyone who wants to bring larger quantities of the coveted goods to the megacities of Moscow or St. Petersburg needs the appropriate documents.

The problem for many traders is to prove the origin of the caviar in order to get the papers.

apr / dpa